Former Rep. Billy Spivey joins GOP field in Senate District 14

Former State Rep. Billy Spivey of Lewisburg has become the third Republican to declare himself a candidate to succeed former state Sen. Jim Tracy, who has resigned his Senate District 14 seat and triggered a special election.

He joins former State Rep. Joe Carr of Lascassas and Murfreesboro businessman Shane Reeves in seeking the GOP nomination for a district that covers Bedford, Lincoln, Marshall and Moore counties along with part of Rutherford County. The primary date is Jan. 25.

Gayle Jordan of Murfreesboro is so far unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

The Tennessee Star reports Spivey made the announcement in a Thursday statement that follows to the online news outlet with a staunchly conservative tilt:

Like many hard-working, patriotic Tennesseans, I’ve come to realize that our state and national systems are broken. Institutions built to serve the people have become perverted to serve Establishment politicians from both parties at the expense of the average parents, business people, and aspiring young people who spend their days trying to build better lives, stronger families, and more prosperous businesses.

This situation cannot be allowed to stand if we’re to have any real hope of leaving a better Tennessee for future generations.

We can’t expect more of the same insider politicians to deliver us from the very system they’ve warped to their benefit. Now more than ever, we need men and women who will fight and win the battles necessary to restore freedoms that have been lost and roll back government power that’s grown far beyond what was originally intended by those who established the great nation we were blessed to inherit.

As a former State Representative, I’ve demonstrated time and again not only an ability to fight those battles, but to win them. The most significant battles I’ve won have come in direct opposition to Establishment forces at the top of my own party. In my time representing District 92 in back-to-back terms in the House of Representatives I didn’t just talk the conservative talk. I walked the conservative walk.

When Establishment leadership wanted to water down my effort to kill the Hall Tax, I stood firm and won. The more they pressured, the more I dug in. That experience taught me how Establishment leadership thinks and operates. It also taught me much about how they can be challenged and beaten.

We need more of that in Nashville, and now more than ever.

We need leaders who relate to issues like health care, health insurance, education, and taxation from the perspective of a hard-working, business-building, employee-hiring taxpayer rather than from the perspective of a well-connected self-serving political insider.

We need leaders who are committed to serving the people rather than serving the Establishment of either major party.

We need Christian men and women in government who understand that shrinking government power and increasing liberty empowers people to dream bigger, fly higher and achieve even greater things.

These are some of the thoughts that have been weighing on me since Jim Tracy announced that he’d be vacating his seat in the Tennessee Senate, and these are some of the reasons I’ve decided to seek the opportunity to carry the torch for the people of Senate District 14.

Having spent most of my career as a blue collar worker, I know what it means to pour blood, sweat, and sometimes tears in pursuit of a paycheck so that my family can be fed and prosper.

Having managed over 800 employees in a manufacturing facility, I know what it means to take on the challenges of large scale operations involving many valuable individuals, with each of them working hard to provide for their homes and families.

As a combat veteran of Desert Storm, I understand what it means to put everything on the line to defend the land that I know and love, and as a father of six daughters, I know the joy and hope of parents who want future generations to experience even more freedom, more prosperity, and more joy than I’ve been blessed to know in life.

Over two terms in the Tennessee House, I took on Common Core. I took on policing for profit, I took on the Hall Tax. And I won.

Not by being a bully and not by playing the games of the Establishment. I won these battles by listening, thinking, and standing on principle.

This is the passion and record that I now hope to bring to the Tennessee Senate.

These are the reasons that I humbly request the votes of the good people of District 14, and promise, if elected, to bring true conservative, anti-Establishment change to Nashville . . . where we all know it’s desperately needed.

2 Responses to Former Rep. Billy Spivey joins GOP field in Senate District 14

We already have a former member of the state house in the race with a solid conservative record in Joe Carr. There are smiles on the faces of tepid conservatives/centrists in the 14th District because the entry of Rep. Spivy will serve to split the conservative vote and thus dramatically improve the chances of Shane Reeves who has never held public office and thus whose ideology unknown perhaps because it hasn’t been fully developed as yet.